We ploughed serious hours of gameplay time into the two Left 4 Dead games, but we're more than ready for Left 4 Dead 3.

It's been a long time since we last had a fresh Left 4 Dead title after all, with the excellent Left 4 Dead 2 arriving back in 2009.

So what do we know so far about Left 4 Dead 3? Very little. Tiny hints at development behind the scenes at Valve could be red herrings. The industry's most secretive developer hides its inner workings with care.

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But that won't stop us scraping together every last fragment of evidence.

LEFT 4 DEAD 3 EVIDENCE - IS IT ACTUALLY BEING MADE?

No one is better placed to talk about a potential sequel than Gabe Newell himself, but during a Reddit AMA earlier this year, he was evasive when asked about the topic of a new L4D.

"Products are usually the result of an intersection of technology that we think has traction, a group of people who want to work on that, and one of the game properties that feels like a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges.

"When we decided we needed to work on markets, free to play, and user generated content, Team Fortress seemed like the right place to do that. That work ended up informing everything we did in the multiplayer space.

"Left 4 Dead is a good place for creating shared narratives."

Thanks for that, Gabe.

Slightly more encouraging are the set of small leaks which indicate something might be happening at Valve.

For instance, references to the game were discovered in a benchmark tool for the HTC Vive (the Steam powered VR headset). The same applies to an incident involving Valve employee Tristan Reidford, who posted a tutorial for importing source engine assets into the Destinations platform, but one of the images happened to include a list of his favourite folders.

Among those was one titled Left 4 Dead 3.

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LEFT 4 DEAD 3 RELEASE DATE – WHEN IS IT COMING OUT?

According to a few online leaks, we should be looking at a 2016 release date for Left 4 Dead 3. However, seeing as we've had no official confirmation from Valve and we're already a substantial way through the year, we're expecting to see Left 4 Dead 3 launch sometime in 2017 – if not later.

After all, the first two games of the Left 4 Dead franchise were developed by Valve and Turtle Rock Studios.

In February 2015, Turtle Rock Studios decided to part ways with Valve to create Evolve, which caused many gamers to believe that Left 4 Dead 3 has been axed for good. However, since then we've had further reports on the game, so we're still holding out.

LEFT 4 DEAD 3 PLATFORMS – XBOX ONE AND PS4?

It is rumoured that Left 4 Dead 3 will be a cross-platform launch, arriving on Xbox One, PS4 and PC simultaneously for zombie-slaying fun all round.

LEFT 4 DEAD 3 CHARACTERS – WHO WILL I BE PLAYING AS?

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In Left 4 Dead 3 we will apparently see four new protagonists take centre stage in the zombie apocalypse.

Reports suggest that there will be three male and one female character, which will be as follows: 24-year old caucasian Katherine, black gangster Irvin, famous Kenpo fighter Garrett Jr. and comic book nerd Keenan.

This is all we know of them at the moment, so until then, we'll have to suffice with staring at the Left 4 Dead 2 character line-up above. Remember Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle?

LEFT 4 DEAD 3 MAPS AND CAMPAIGN – WHERE WILL IT TAKE PLACE?

According to a source at Valve, Left 4 Dead 3 will be a kind of prequel-sequel of "Left 4 Dead 2". Apparently the story will take place one months after the zombie infection has begun to spread, slightly earlier than the setting of Left 4 Dead 2.

The game is also tipped to feature six campaigns, known as Crashland, Impasse, Inquisitor Land, Early Destination, Cliff Hanger and No Mercy.

The ex-employee of Valve also suggested that the backpack system is changing slightly, so that each character can only carry a specific item.

LEFT 4 DEAD 3 WISHLIST – WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE

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Until we have more official (or at least unofficial) details on Left 4 Dead 3, we've scoured the internet to find out the five biggest features fans want to see in Left 4 Dead 3.

1. Weapon mods

Although weapon crafting works well in other games, it would be a major hinderance in a game that manages to keep the gameplay flowing at quite a pace. Imagine having to wait for one of your team to gather all the bits for a new weapon before you could move on into the next section.

Instead, we propose Valve experiments with weapon mods. You'd just be able to pick them up and kit your weapon out with them immediately. Perhaps they're crazy powerful and only last a limited time or useage, or they're a little more ridiculous and make the game even more comical.

2. Make it a little more open world

Running through the various campaigns of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Daed 2 were the best the first time around. There's nothing better than having that added craziness of not knowing where you're meant to be going when there are millions of zombies eager to eat your innards.

However, after that initial time that element of surprise deteriorates.

To make each level have more replayability, why not make it a little more open world?

Valve might not want to make Left 4 Dead 3 an entirely open world affair, but it may want to open up those parameters slightly. Add in alternate routes, allow teams to crawl through hidden vents, or offer a path onto the rooftops so they cam throw the enemies off for a few minutes.

There's also the idea of making level procedurally generated, so that the different sections appear in a slightly different order each time, keeping players on their toes every play through.

3. And make that world more interactive

Or if Valve isn't keen on that, there's the idea of making the world more interactive. Although car alarms could be accidentally triggered to make things more difficult for the survivors, why not make other items interactive. Could a TV be switched on to draw off some of the zombies, or environmental object used to squash zombies when you've run out of ammo?

There's plenty of scope here, so it makes sense for Left for Dead 3 to take advantage of it, as it wouldn't affect the game's pacing or exhilarating game of cat and mouse.

4. Character customisation

Although we've loved all eight of the Left 4 Dead characters over the years, there's scope to introduce a little more character customisation in Left 4 Dead 3 without losing the series' trademark strong personalities.

Give players access to a selection of skins and outfits for each character, allowing them to tweak characters a little more to their personal preferences. It wouldn't affect their character traits, but it would mix things up a bit.

5. A better story

Valve's idea with both Left 4 Dead games to date was that each campaign played out like a B-movie, with only Left 4 Dead 2 having a short opening cutscene that attempted to link the various smaller stories together.